Cortez: Visit Florida's 'last surviving fishing village'

AP PHOTO/CHRIS O'MEARA

Gone suddenly are the markings of contemporary Florida's Gulf Coast region: the strip malls, kitschy tourist shops and mobile-home parks. In their places are old bungalows, many dating from the 1920s, along narrow roads dotted with palms and live oaks. Straight ahead, just before you reach the drink are A.P. Bell Fish Co. Inc. and the Star Fish Co., commercial fish houses next door to each other on Sarasota Bay, where anglers dock their fishing boats and unload their catches to be sold fresh. Billed by the Manatee County Historical Commission as the coast's "last surviving fishing village," the town likely gets its name from an early Spanish fishing "rancho." The community was known as Hunters Point until the 1880s, when the town now known as Cortez was permanently settled by fishermen from Carteret County, N.C. -- Dave Bryan, Associated Press

Gone suddenly are the markings of contemporary Florida's Gulf Coast region: the strip malls, kitschy tourist shops and mobile-home parks. In their places are old bungalows, many dating from the 1920s, along narrow roads dotted with palms and live oaks. Straight ahead, just before you reach the drink are A.P. Bell Fish Co. Inc. and the Star Fish Co., commercial fish houses next door to each other on Sarasota Bay, where anglers dock their fishing boats and unload their catches to be sold fresh. Billed by the Manatee County Historical Commission as the coast's "last surviving fishing village," the town likely gets its name from an early Spanish fishing "rancho." The community was known as Hunters Point until the 1880s, when the town now known as Cortez was permanently settled by fishermen from Carteret County, N.C. -- Dave Bryan, Associated Press (AP PHOTO/CHRIS O'MEARA)

Gone suddenly are the markings of contemporary Florida's Gulf Coast region: the strip malls, kitschy tourist shops and mobile-home parks. In their places are old bungalows, many dating from the 1920s, along narrow roads dotted with palms and live oaks. Straight ahead, just before you reach the drink are A.P. Bell Fish Co. Inc. and the Star Fish Co., commercial fish houses next door to each other on Sarasota Bay, where anglers dock their fishing boats and unload their catches to be sold fresh. Billed by the Manatee County Historical Commission as the coast's "last surviving fishing village," the town likely gets its name from an early Spanish fishing "rancho." The community was known as Hunters Point until the 1880s, when the town now known as Cortez was permanently settled by fishermen from Carteret County, N.C. -- Dave Bryan, Associated Press